Italy is on red alert; Portugal records hottest day in May
Rome: Italy issued a red alert for the capital, Rome, on Thursday, and Portugal and France declared the hottest days in May as Europe suffers a record-breaking heat wave across the continent.Britain and France have already declared their hottest May day on record this week, with a “heat dome” bringing extreme temperatures only seen at the height of summer in Western Europe.Many people died in Britain and France, most of them in drowning accidents that the authorities linked to the extreme heat, while Portuguese Health Minister Ana Paula Martins stated that the heat wave caused a significant increase in hospitalizations.The temperature peaked at 40.3C in the central Portuguese town of Mora on Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 40C set in May 2001, the weather agency announced on Thursday, warning that the heatwave has a “high probability” of lasting until the beginning of June.Italy has so far been spared the highest temperatures, but on Thursday officials warned people in Rome and four northern cities against exposure to the sun.“We are sweating a lot,” said Spanish tourist Nana Martinez Garcia as she tried to stay cool outside the Colosseum in Rome on Thursday as temperatures reached 32 degrees Celsius.
“We drink a lot of water so we can cool down,” she said, while her friend Maria Angeles Melinas Tello said they “stay in the shade” whenever possible.The first red alert of the year in Italy – which also included Florence, Bologna, Brescia and Turin – warned of “potential negative effects on the health of healthy and active people”.Scientists say human-caused climate change is amplifying such extreme phenomena, with weather phenomena such as heat waves, droughts and floods becoming more severe and frequent.Tennis problemsThe worst of the temperatures appear to have passed in Britain, but much of France continued to bake on Thursday.Temperatures in the southwestern city of Angoulême reached a maximum of 37.8 degrees Celsius, surpassing May temperature records that had just been set on Monday and Tuesday, according to a provisional figure from the French meteorological service in the evening.A school in the country’s southwest was forced to close Thursday afternoon and Friday after temperatures in the hallways reached 53 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, causing students to fall ill, a local official said.“There was a person who fainted and vomited,” said Florian Degas, an official in the Landes region.National meteorological authority Meteo France said Paris expected temperatures to reach 34 degrees Celsius and remained on orange alert against a heatwave, after record days in France on Monday and Tuesday.Players at the French Open tennis tournament held on the outskirts of Paris suffered from the heat, as one of them collapsed after winning a grueling match that lasted for hours.Italian Jannik Sinner, the favorite at Roland Garros, complained of dehydration, dizziness and nausea while exposed to the heat on his way to a surprise loss in the second round to his rival Juan Manuel Cerundolo.Staff at the stadium spray the red-surfaced courts with water after each set, and once the day’s matches are over, “we flood the courts and flood them with water, replenishing the different layers that make up the clay with water,” said Philip Vaillant, chief maintenance worker.In Spain, the national meteorological office Aemet issued temperature alerts for Friday in parts of the northeast and north, where temperatures are expected to rise to 37 degrees Celsius.The office said in a post on social media that temperatures were “unusually high” for this time of year across Spain, at levels normally seen in summer. Temperatures are expected to drop significantly next week.Returning to Rome, American tourist Josh Wren said he had a plan to deal with the heat: “Get up early, do things early, take lots of breaks. “Go sit in an air-conditioned restaurant, go to a museum, and stay inside a little longer during the hotter times of the day.”
